+ The UK’s BIM legislation is fostering partnership working but it will only truly succeed if clients change their procurement mindsets.

Opinions differ on exactly how, and indeed how much, governments should legislate for building information modelling (BIM). My experience has shown me that the UK’s approach is certainly good enough to make good things happen.

UK legislation acknowledges that information is key and aims to make BIM 'one version of the truth'. It’s seen as a lifecycle of data that grows over a project and is useful for design teams, contractors, owners and operators through time.

The government’s ultimate aim is Level 3 BIM, which would see everyone working together in a joint venture with shared liability and gain. The stepping-stone to this, Level 2, is the target for all centrally procured public projects by 2016.

There’s much to like about Level 2 BIM. It requires minimal changes to standard contracts, encourages project teams to collaborate and makes partnership working possible in a way that never really happened before.

So is there a downside? The legislation is certainly well written, but there’s currently an education gap. While working in the way that BIM demands is second nature to some private sector clients like vehicle manufacturers, it’s new to most others, particularly in the public sector.

Healthcare, education and local authority clients certainly like the idea of Level 2 BIM but many don’t really understand how it works or know what to ask for. They don’t know what they want included in their models.

The government could specify this for them, but tighter legislation risks being anti-competitive. Clients could, as many are doing, appoint BIM consultants to show them what to do. But I don’t think this is a long-term answer; BIM should just happen, it shouldn’t be about creating a whole new sector of advisers.

With this in mind, I think BIM will work best when it’s not seen as a specialism, but when it’s just something that everyone in the team – client, consultant and contractor alike – does. I’m seeing this starting to happen and I think that as more people gain experience with BIM the knowledge gap will start to close.

In the UK, we’re still a long way from realising the ultimate goal of BIM but we’re well on the path to it. The government has set a target and the industry is coming together to work towards it.

But success relies on more than just new roles and new skills on the delivery side. Clients must now change their procurement mindsets if they are to unlock the full potential of BIM.

Reply to comment /

Comments /

Neil Harrison

I agree with the sentiment that BIM will work best when it's not seen as a specialism and without need for a specialist consultant. I have revently attended two 'BIM Kick-Off' meetings on two separate projects. Essentially all that gets discussed at these meetings is how we should work together. As building engineers and architects have been working together for decades, it seems kind of ludicrous that there is a need for such a meeting.

Dan Clipsom

I think we've all been in that situation. The real question should be about how BIM can enable us to work together better and more efficiently than we already do - as you rightly point out, working together is what we do, its fundamental to good design.

I see BIM as a way of magnifying our current collaborative approaches by reducing the overhead involved in working together. If we can gain a wider appreciation of the processes taking place outside of our own areas of focus (the 'how' and 'why', not just the 'what') and adopt common approaches to structuring and sharing our data then collaboration could become 99% creative undertaking and only 1% admin.

The approaches and ideals set out in the currently published guidance seem to share this common aim of making it easier to work together - but they do expect a certain level of ability in that area already. With this in mind, I approach start-up meetings as an opportunity to draw a line below what we can already do and focus instead on how we can build on that to do something better.

Kath Fontana

A major barrier just now are procurement silos which prevents clients from appointing their FM contractor as part of the D&B contract. This effectively prevents clients from getting expert opertional input into their EIRs and the ongoing development of their models. The 'Totex' concept is a great idea but stumbles at the first hurdle of procurement. We need to align supply chain management across all stages so that we can really get the long term benefit from BIM.

Dan Clipsom

This issue is a valid one and I think that BIM can overcome this if we apply the kind of Lean thinking approach that has proved successful in the manufacturing sector.

Splitting a process up into it's individual stages and pressuring each to perform at maximum capacity will only ever bring marginal improvements. Lean thinking is all about looking at the overall process to generate flow and minimise the waste generated by mismatches between individual parts of that process.

It is entirely possible that the things being done in the name of improving the capital delivery phase of a project are actively disadvantaging the operational phase without anyone realising until it's too late to fix.

Rapid urbanisation is a worldwide phenomenon, with uncontrolled urban sprawl being a major problem in many developing countries. In the UK where our planning system has encouraged the compact city model, concerns relate to the failure of new house...

Developing underground is an increasingly attractive and economically viable option for crowded cities.
In high-density urban areas, pressure for space is sparking interest in building downwards as well as upwards. Cities including Hong Kong,...

A booming Asia creates opportunities to export Australia’s sustainability skills and knowledge. But first, we must show through independent assessment that we can build more sustainably in Australia. Key to this will be sustainability ratings...

By taking advantage of increased efficiencies, developing on a precinct or neighbourhood scale creates smarter and more liveable communities than thinking on a building-by-building level. Realising the benefits of this approach requires a...

High-speed data and mobile communications technology is allowing us to think differently about how we plan and develop urban spaces, making cities a platform for plug and play applications.
Australia is currently rolling out a national broadband...

There is no doubt that this remains among the most difficult economic environments we have faced in decades. In the wake of the US housing and banking collapse and Eurozone volatility, the impact of the crisis still reverberates far and wide across...

Innovation is critical to economic growth, progress, and the fate of the planet. Although innovation may seem to happen at random, planners and politicians could take advantage of patterns that emerge to encourage innovation and growth.
One...

For some early twentieth century commentators, the twenty-first century was going to be about electronic mediation of space. For others it was about speed and vectors of movement. But fundamentally people often believed that the same urban paradigms...

The world’s population is forecast to reach seven billion on 31 October 2011, according to the United Nations, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for us all. With more than half of these people living in urban areas, new ways...

Reading through a couple of pieces recently about heat mapping for district heating systems and another about rethinking city resilience took me back to Sarajevo during the Bosnian conflict and some real-life lessons in innovation and resilience...

Recession in the west has brought a temporary respite in the planning arena through reduced pressures on land and lower growth in both traffic levels and household formation. It has also brought new challenges in the form of neighbourhoods blighted...